Michigan Battle of the Buildings Competitor Guidelines

Competitor Guidelines

Competitors in the Michigan Battle of the Buildings are categorized by building type and compete against similar buildings. Competition categories are based on the building types available in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager. When creating your property in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager, you should select the building type that best represents your building.

Getting Started

What is the Michigan Battle of the Buildings?

All building types are welcome! Commercial, industrial, institutional, non-profits, multi-family, education, retail, campus, owners and tenants (sorry, no single family residential at this time). New buildings are not eligible as you must have 24 months of energy data available by the cutoff date. Any organization can enter one or more buildings of any type in the competition as long as the building is located in the state of Michigan.

What are the requirements to compete?

Contestants are required to upload complete source energy use data (electric, steam, natural gas, renewable energy, etc.) for the previous two calendar years into ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager (ESPM). For a clearer picture of your building energy use, it is suggested to enter energy data as far back as you want to go, but is not required for the competition. After uploading your data into ESPM, share your account with “Michigan Battle of the Buildings.”

Does the MI Battle of the Buildings share my data?

How do I share in Portfolio Manager?

Enroll Here

Competition Timeline

You can connect with us and register your building at any time throughout the year. Complete energy data for each property is due in March and awards are held annually at the Michigan Energy Summit. Specific deadlines for data sharing are announced in the fall of the prior year.

The competition is open to new and returning contestants. Source energy data must be entered into Energy Star Portfolio Manager by early March for the previous two calendar years to be considered for the competition. No new entries or data uploads will be considered after the data cutoff date for that competition year.

Determining the Winners

How are the winners determined?

Using data submitted through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (ESPM) or the industrial widget template, MiGBC will determine which competitors have achieved the greatest energy reduction based on each building’s year-over-year percent change in Weather Normalized Source EUI.

If a building ranks as a top “Biggest Loser,” all data entries will be verified prior to officially confirming the winner. To ensure broad and equitable recognition of energy reduction achievements, each building portfolio owner is limited to one winning building per annual competition.

How is the data calculated?

The competition is based on year-over-year percent change in Weather Normalized Source Energy Use Intensity. Let’s break that down:

Year-over-year compares a metric (e.g., energy) from a specific period to the same period the previous year. In this case, it compares year end calendar data from December 31st.
Percent Change is the current year’s usage minus the prior year’s usage divided by the prior year. It tells us weather a building lost or gained energy over a 2 year period.
Weather Normalized is the energy your building would have used under average conditions (also referred to as climate normals). The weather in a given year may be much hotter or colder than your building’s normal climate; weather normalized energy accounts for this difference.
Source Energy traces the heat and electricity requirements of the building back to the raw fuel input, thereby accounting for any losses and enabling a complete thermodynamic assessment. Using this metric allows for renewable energy to be a factor in the competition. You enter in your building’s site energy usage and ENERGY STAR calculates the source energy metric.
Energy Use Intensity (EUI) is simply the total energy per square foot per year. It’s calculated by dividing the total energy consumed by the building in one year (measured in kBtu) by the total gross floor area of the building. This is the main metric ENERGY STAR uses to benchmarking properties.

EUI = total kBtu per year/square footage
Percent Change = ((Current Year – Prior Year)/Prior Year)*100 = % lost or gained

Find out what building types are in each category, learn more about the competitor categories, and read frequently asked questions by visiting our “Competitor Categories” page or following the button below.

Learn More

Time to Celebrate the Biggest Losers!

The Michigan Battle of the Buildings’ Biggest Losers are celebrated at the annual Michigan Energy Summit, hosted by the Michigan Green Building Collaborative. Because the competition compares calendar year energy performance, each year’s winners are honored at the following year’s Summit (for example, 2025 winners are celebrated at the 2026 Summit).